That Impromtu Athlone Beer Club meet up in The Malt House in full!

Let’s start at the beginning, it was ooooh, about half nine last night when I burst through the swinging doors of The Malt House ready for this month’s Beer Club. Unusually I wasn’t the first there, a pair of rascals had started without me. Immediate expulsions all round.

When that dispute was agreeably resolved credentials were checked. Myself and James were carrying our new Beoir membership cards and we exhorted the rest of the group to sign up. It’s only a tenner after all! (If you want to know how to join just ask me.)

We started with one of my favourite new beers from the Midlands, St Mel’s Helles Lager. But we probably should have begun with Carrick’s Amber Ale. No matter!

Rob had done up a menu for the evening, there was a lot of beer on there, so drinking duties were shared out in an equable fashion. Hannah is normally a cider drinker so we decided she should try the Fruli.

She really liked it. She declared ‘You could drink that all night!’

Beer has a funny way of bringing some people together and pushing others apart. 

Tony enjoying his Ginger Beard.

Benny checks out Carrick’s Poachers Pale Ale. Now we were getting down to serious business.

Dave from Bo Bristle had kindly given me a pair of bottles of their brand new limited release Smokey Bacon. It’s a smoked beer in the style of a German rauchbier. There is no bacon in it, we’ll leave that to the crazy people in Rogue. It is well smoked and there’s a bit of a bitter kick. Very good. It’s being distributed by Vanguard, so if your local has Bo Bristle ask if they can get it in! John is down learning his trade at Black’s of Kinsale at the moment so he brought a pair of bottles of the lesser spotted Beoir #1. I’ve written about that here before, some of the group hadn’t had a double IPA before and it was great to see their pleasantly surprised reactions.

I decided to call it a night and finished up with a Kinsale Pale Ale. Thanks to the crew in The Malt House for looking after us so well last night.
This is post number 250, thank you for coming here and having a read!